December 24, 2011

Women are From Venus, Pigs are from Marzipan

Happy holidays, everybody! Sorry for the silence lately... big things have been cooking at chez Extreme Craft. Claire is 8.9 months pregnant, and the arrival of our new roommate could happen at any time. What could be so important that it drags me back to post on my dear, neglected blog?

Marzipan, of course! I just read a post on BoingBoing about the pork-y marzipan confection that you see above. Jonas Laberg created it out of TEN KILOGRAMS of marzipan... that's about 22 pounds to we 'Mericans who don't parlez-vous the metric system. The kicker is that Laberg made it for his (presumably) daughters, who are 5 and 7, but is thinking of not giving it to them because he thinks the thing is TOO EVIL! C'mon, Jonas! I grew up on a farm with all sorts of demonic animals (and baked goods), but I turned out FINE (insert crickets or needle scratch here).

This does remind me a little bit of Camille Allen, a woman who sculpts tiny, premature babies out of polymer clay. About seven years back, some asshole started sending around an email that claimed the babies were made out of MARZIPAN! Ms. Allen is still reeling from all of the visitors who come to her site expecting gruesome preemie confections. The first thing you see is a big disclaimer that lets you know in no uncertain terms that the babies are NOT made out of marzipan.

This is an open plea to Mr. Laberg to let those little girls appreciate the beauty of his labor. Christmas comes but once a year.

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Women are From Venus, Pigs are from Marzipan

Happy holidays, everybody! Sorry for the silence lately... big things have been cooking at chez Extreme Craft. Claire is 8.9 months pregnant, and the arrival of our new roommate could happen at any time. What could be so important that it drags me back to post on my dear, neglected blog?

Marzipan, of course! I just read a post on BoingBoing about the pork-y marzipan confection that you see above. Jonas Laberg created it out of TEN KILOGRAMS of marzipan... that's about 22 pounds to we 'Mericans who don't parlez-vous the metric system. The kicker is that Laberg made it for his (presumably) daughters, who are 5 and 7, but is thinking of not giving it to them because he thinks the thing is TOO EVIL! C'mon, Jonas! I grew up on a farm with all sorts of demonic animals (and baked goods), but I turned out FINE (insert crickets or needle scratch here).

This does remind me a little bit of Camille Allen, a woman who sculpts tiny, premature babies out of polymer clay. About seven years back, some asshole started sending around an email that claimed the babies were made out of MARZIPAN! Ms. Allen is still reeling from all of the visitors who come to her site expecting gruesome preemie confections. The first thing you see is a big disclaimer that lets you know in no uncertain terms that the babies are NOT made out of marzipan.

This is an open plea to Mr. Laberg to let those little girls appreciate the beauty of his labor. Christmas comes but once a year.

This body of work was created during a Summer 2010 residency at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. These porcelain vessels explore traditional Chinese iconography as refracted through a decidedly Western point of view.